Prolactin is also involved. It, testosterone and estrogen are homones, oxytocin and vassopresin are peptides, dopamine, seratonin, [and several others] are neurotrasmitters.

For men testosterone rules libido and aggression.

Women, they still don't really know. Some repond to testosterone increases, others don't and you have to be careful or you pick up male characteristics if you over do it. Lowering prolactin and stimulating dopamine seems to intensify, but not necessarily create libido. Oxytocin seems to help bonding in both sexes, but not necessarily libido. NO seems to get the equipment working. Bing fertile seems to increase libido for women. Being on thepill seems to decrease it as do ssri's, but some have pradoxical increases in libido.

when first falling in love you get a big spike of dopamine which is an excitatory neuro transmitter (along with a bunch of other stuff). THat is what keeps you awake, makes you grind your teeth and makes you an ocd poster child.

That wears off eventually and seratonin/oxytocin takes over as the main juice so you just feel good hanging out together.

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I remember saying to my nan, 'Nan, what is love?" And my nan taught me something I'll never forget. She said, 'You know, I've always thought of it as something very natural, and very organic. Oh yes, on the outside it's tough and it's ugly and it's hard but let it grow naturally and look inside and you'll see it's soft and it's gentle.' I said, 'That's the most beautiful thing I've ever heard. Do you really believe that's what love is?' And she said 'Love? Sorry I thought you said a melon.'

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"When you fall in love, it is a temporary madness. It erupts like an earthquake, and then it subsides. And when it subsides, you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have become so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the desire to mate every second of the day. It is not lying awake at night imagining that he is kissing every part of your body. No… don’t blush. I am telling you some truths. For that is just being in love; which any of us can convince ourselves we are. Love itself is what is left over, when being in love has burned away. Doesn't sound very exciting, does it? But it is!"

All the wisdom of the world can be found in movies, if you're willing to set your bullshit tolerance high enough to survive the inanity. I'm part of a dying breed of people who look for reasons to like a film, who can walk away feeling that the experience was worthwhile if there was at least one thing that inspired me. It's easy enough, if you want to be inspired. This little gem can be found in a movie described by one reviewer as "One of the year's most embarrassing big-budget miscalculations". It is from Captain Corelli's Mandolin of course. I've liked Nicholas Cage in about 2 movies, and this wasn't one of them. I will however always remember this quote, which wasn't one of his lines.

I'm sure this point has been made before. I didn't peruse the entire thread. But what the original poster is describing here is infatuation, not love. It's a fantastic and profoundly wonderful insanity, but even though it is these things and much more, it lacks substance. True love does indeed exist in the real world, but it grows out of struggle and compromise rather than levity and sleeplessness. It's the easiest thing in the world to be in love. In fact research has demonstrated that during this period of intense infatuation two people are never more alike. It's a biochemical thing that is an integral part of the bonding process.

But what does real love feel like? I'd say that it feels like a lot of different things. Contentedness after compromise, happiness after sacrifice. It is saying sorry when you're absolutely convinced that your argument is just as valid. It's a rollercoaster ride of highs and lows. And it is as a previous colleague of mine once said "looking back over 40 years of marriage and thanking God that I didn't throw in the towel when I really wanted to".

Not all relationships are going to last of course. Sometimes people just aren't right for each other. But there are also lot of people who miss out on the experience of this deeper longer lasting love because they throw it all away at the first sign of trouble. Love is when two people decide to put in enough effort to make it work, and come to truly appreciate each other because of it. And facing life together like that is indeed an exciting thing.

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My concept of love is that it is something difficult to attain, often confused with lust, infatuation...these are animal desires stemming from the need to mate and carry one's own seed on. Throughout high school, I had a good many relationships, all of which I perceived as being 'love'. Just after high school, I had a relationship at the ripe old age of 18 in which I was introduced to love, the reality.

Love isn't about aesthetics, nor is it about mere mental stimulation. Love isn't even about that warm, fuzzy feeling you get inside. The love I found was a realization that I was far too young and immature to appreciate for what it was.

In my experience, this is what love is: Love is accepting that you can be happy and working for your own personal happiness, not feeling as though you absolutely need someone else in your life to validate your existence. Love is when you realize that there is someone out there you value greatly who contributes to your own personal happiness in the least selfish manner possible. It's caring about yourself and understanding your needs while realizing that there is someone who fits into your own personal ideal of happiness. It's not forced or even horribly difficult, it merely is.

Allright, in good metaphor/philosophical terms what - from personal experience - does love feel like?

For me, its every moment your mind has free time your thinking about the person. You don't see her for a day you're missing her, and even when you do see her dring the day it always seems like it wasn't enough time spent together. You burn for physical contact, I can't believe shes real, something so beautiful can't be real. You burn for return feelings, for discussion, for interaction. And most imprtantly shes perfect, not as in some impossible to fill ideal created by man, but in your standards, and as a human shes perfect. Also shes so beautiful its like looking at the stars, you can make a second last an eternity. And you never get sick of being with her.

I'm sure this point has been made before. I didn't peruse the entire thread. But what the original poster is describing here is infatuation, not love. It's a fantastic and profoundly wonderful insanity, but even though it is these things and much more, it lacks substance. True love does indeed exist in the real world, but it grows out of struggle and compromise rather than levity and sleeplessness. It's the easiest thing in the world to be in love. In fact research has demonstrated that during this period of intense infatuation two people are never more alike. It's a biochemical thing that is an integral part of the bonding process.

But what does real love feel like? I'd say that it feels like a lot of different things. Contentedness after compromise, happiness after sacrifice. It is saying sorry when you're absolutely convinced that your argument is just as valid. It's a rollercoaster ride of highs and lows. And it is as a previous colleague of mine once said "looking back over 40 years of marriage and thanking God that I didn't throw in the towel when I really wanted to".

Not all relationships are going to last of course. Sometimes people just aren't right for each other. But there are also lot of people who miss out on the experience of this deeper longer lasting love because they throw it all away at the first sign of trouble. Love is when two people decide to put in enough effort to make it work, and come to truly appreciate each other because of it. And facing life together like that is indeed an exciting thing.

Before I went out with her, I really Loved her. I missed her, but not enough to lose my inner peace. I was having fun and enjoying life with her. The problem came when I began to go out with her. I tasted the sweet honey of a girl's lip and fell in despair whenever she wasn't with me - she became an addiction. I couldn't have fun anymore when I was alone, and whenever she was with me, I wanted to stay with her and don't let her go. She started feeling umcomfortable with the situation and broke with me. It was really painful - I had lost my Love.

You see. My Love turned into love. My joy and simplicity were transformed into an addiction, a need. That's why people say that love hurts. It doesn't. Love is very peaceful. Love creates peace. Why do you want to go out with someone? To be fulfilled by the other person? To discount all your problems in the other person? Or it is simply to have fun? I don't know about you... but everything I want is to have fun and to be happy.

You see... people transform Love into an addiction (and sometimes it's addiction since the beginning) and this creates suffering. If, for example, a guy want to stay with a girl that is addicted to him, he can control her. She becomes his pet. She does everything he wants because if she doesn't, the guy won't give her "love" and she suffers. She is addicted to him. He abuses her. Who is to blame? Anyone. She wants that, he wants that and that's it. Not very pleasant, but many people are like this. That's NOT Love. Love is self-fulfilling. You don't NEED other person neither other person NEEDS you. You just want to have fun. If there is a need/attachement, you don't Love each other, you just want to be with the other to satisfy YOUR "NEED"... what is very selfish...

Learning not to fight
By never giving up the fight
Seeing through it all
By seeing past it all
Giving up everything you have
And everything you are
To find out who you really are
On the inside
Letting everything you are die
To become something else entirely
That is yourself
Because you only discover who you are
When you give yourself entirely
To someone else
Being stronger than you ever thought was possible
By allowing yourself to be more vulnerable than you ever thought was possible
Risking everything
And risking nothing
Because love is the only thing
That really matters
And it makes everything else matter
Because it makes nothing else matter
It takes you to the highest high
And the lowest low
And it makes you never want to feel again
While you long to feel again
To feel that touch
Deep inside
That makes everything ok
And takes away all the pain
Of this cruel, cruel world

at that time I didnt care to much for him, but his lies lead me to believe we WHERE dating the entire month untill he got what he wanted, then he was gone with the wind

edit:
we also have to make sure that he isnt anywhere near the towns I am close to. He has threatened us, but because I learned it from hs ex gf, who told me ALOT of things that where shocking.. I cant do anything about it.. he is in texas now thank god

My hearts a broken mess with nothing left but sorrows kiss
Laughing hard I fill the space that's never been touched
a bliss unknown to me follows through into circling motions of pain
a distraction for a moment but never for the loss I've born within